Delaying until the last possible moment before Westminster shut for the summer, Education Secretary Damian Hinds announced that some teachers will receive a pay increase of up to 3.5% this September.

It’s important that everyone understands what this means for our schools.

Here are the 3 things you need to know:

1.

The independent Institute for Fiscal Studies confirmed that for 60% of teachers, this pay “increase” actually represents a real-terms pay cut. As a school community of parents, pupils and staff alike, we need to continue standing together with the teachers that teach our children.

2.

The Treasury has not released any new money to fund this. That means the Department for Education will have to raid the needed £500m from other parts of education spending. Then schools will have to fund the rest from already stretched budgets. Until Chancellor Philip Hammond releases new school funding, the Government is robbing Peter to pay Paul — but both Peter and Paul are broke.

3.

This won’t bring back the teachers and TAs our schools have already lost. We know schools lost 5,366 teachers in the last year while pupil numbers grew by 136,544*. As the school funding crisis deepens, this announcement does nothing to protect vital staff whose jobs are still on the line.